‘If something is wrong, you’ve got to do something about it’

By LIZ HARDAWAY

STAFF WRITER

Betty Gissendanner pleaded for residents to examine their conscience before voting this past election season.

Gissendanner was no stranger to standing up for what’s right. Having marched against racism since she was a young girl in Alabama, she was a local political champion who stood up for those who were marginalized and forgotten.

“If something is wrong, you’ve got to do something about it,” Gissendanner told the Sun in 2015 at the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Gissendanner died Wednesday after battling colon cancer. She was 67.

“The earthly struggle is now over,” Gissendanner’s son, William “Doug” Gissendanner, wrote on her Facebook page. “While completely heartbroken, as this is a pain deeper than any I’ve ever known, I’m reminded of God’s tremendous love for us both, which goes well beyond my comprehension.”

Born March 10, 1951, Gissendanner was one of 10 children of sharecropper parents in Alabama. She was the first in her family to graduate from high school and college, according to an interview in September 2018. She graduated from Troy University with a degree in nursing, and had a graduate degree from Wichita State University, also in nursing.

Growing up in the days of Jim Crow, she was among the first 22 black children to integrate Dale County High School. As she was bullied, the principal of the newly integrated public school stood up for her, just as she spent her life speaking up for the oppressed.

The outspoken voice of the Charlotte County Democratic Club served most recently as their vice chair, but has also been the president and treasurer in the past. She also served as treasurer of the Charlotte

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